Silk Way Rally: Volkswagen stage 5 report

"Dakar" winner Sainz in front again - de Villiers retired
Wolfsburg (15 September 2010). Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz
took the lead again at the dress rehearsal for the Dakar
Rally. The Volkswagen duo piloting a Race Touareg 3 at the
Silk Way...

"Dakar" winner Sainz in front again - de Villiers retired

Wolfsburg (15 September 2010). Carlos Sainz and Lucas Cruz
took the lead again at the dress rehearsal for the Dakar
Rally. The Volkswagen duo piloting a Race Touareg 3 at the
Silk Way Rally through Russia heads the overall standings
after five of eight legs. On the special stage from
Volgograd to Astrakhan their team colleagues Nasser
Al-Attiyah/Timo Gottschalk (Q/D) set the third-fasted time
and became the overall runners-up. Mark Miller/Ralph
Pitchford (USA/ZA) in a third "Dakar" prototype from
Wolfsburg are third overall and thus heading for a podium
result as well.

For Giniel de Villiers and Dirk von Zitzewitz on the other
hand the Silk Way Rally ended early. The 2009 "Dakar"
winning duo rolled over at kilometre 324 of the special
stage after encountering a transverse rut in off-road
terrain. Thanks to the safety concept of the Race Touareg
the South African-German pairing sustained no injuries but
was forced to retire due to the damaged cooling system of
their car.

From Volgograd across the steppe into the Danube Delta to
Astrakhan: the fifth leg took the entrants to the historic
trading point between the Caspian Sea and the Silk Road
which is world famous for its Beluga caviar. The longest
special stage of the Silk Way Rally again offered the
participants varied terrain with off-road navigation and
dune sections with very soft sand.

Kris Nissen (Volkswagen Motorsport Director)
"It's been a long and hard day with ups and downs. Our Race
Touareg vehicles again ran without any problems and our four
teams fought a captivating battle for stage victory.
Unfortunately, Dirk von Zitzewitz and Giniel de Villiers
caught a transverse rut and rolled over, which forced them
to retire. The most important thing, though, is that neither
was injured in the accident."

#100 - Carlos Sainz (E), 1st place leg / 1st place overall
"Today was a very thrilling day for all of us, it was a leg
just like at the Dakar Rally. We did well straight from the
start of the special stage and quickly recovered the two
minutes we'd started behind Giniel de Villiers. Nasser
Al-Attiyah, as well, caught up and the lead changed several
times between us. In between we stopped and helped our team
colleagues Giniel and Dirk who had rolled over."

#101 - Giniel de Villiers (ZA), retirement
"I'm hugely disappointed. To roll over at such a relatively
harmless place is frustrating. Nasser Al-Attiyah, Carlos
Sainz and we took turns leading the stage for some time.
Just as we were leaving a dune belt we noticed a transverse
rut that was about two metres wide and 50 centimetres deep
too late. The car got caught in it and rolled over forwards
coming to rest on the roof. With help from Carlos and Nasser
we put it back on its wheels again and could have gone on.
All systems were still running - just the cooling system was
too heavily damaged to continue."

#102 - Nasser Al-Attiyah (Q), 3rd place leg / 2nd place
overall
"First of all: it's a shame that Giniel de Villiers and Dirk
von Zitzewitz retired after the roll-over. But sometimes
that's just part of racing. Up to that moment it had been a
really good day for us and we made up a lot of time. But
after helping Giniel and Dirk and resuming our drive we got
stuck in the dunes 100 kilometres before the finish. That
again cost us a lot of time. If we hadn't gotten stuck we
could have achieved an even better result."

#104 - Mark Miller (USA), 2nd place leg / 3rd place overall
"Apparently the moment of Ralph and I opening the course for
a change was necessary. At the beginning of the leg we had
some minor problems and were looking for the way here and
there. But after overtaking Nasser Al-Attiyah, who had
gotten stuck, and Carlos Sainz, who had gotten lost, things
just clicked and we were working in perfect harmony. Now I'm
hoping that we broke our duck because tomorrow will be as
tough as the past days have been."

Number of the day

By the end of the Silk Way Rally the Volkswagen squad will
probably have consumed 320 packs of instant soup and five
kilograms of ground coffee to stay awake on long days. On
average the crew only gets about four to five hours of sleep
per night due to the service routes being almost 700
kilometres long.